Engineering Clinic Sponsor Information

The Harvey Mudd College Clinic Program engages students in the solving of real-world, technical problems for corporate clients, national and research laboratories. Our engineering, mathematics, physics, and computer science departments each conduct Clinic projects that draw upon the unique talents of our students and faculty advisors. Since Clinic was developed at Harvey Mudd College over 45 years ago, over 330 organizations have participated and our students have completed almost 1,300 projects.

Students work in groups of four or five under the guidance of a student team leader, a faculty advisor, and a liaison from the sponsoringorganization. Projects begin in September, involve about 1,200 to 1,500 work hours and are completed the following May. The sponsor’s liaison outlines the project requirements, approves the team’s proposal for accomplishing the work, and receives weekly progress reports. In most cases the student team visits the sponsoring company during the first month and typically provides a summary presentation to senior officials at the end of the project. Clinic teams present their research during public forums held on-campus and submit final written reports to the sponsoring organization upon completion of the project. Sponsors retain full rights to all intellectual property developed by the team. Every Clinic Project is formally presented at a special year-end event called Projects Day.

Clinic is the centerpiece of the professional practice component of the College’s curriculum. Our clients pay a fixed fee for student teams to work on current problems which the company or agency needs solved. The objective is to produce useful results on an open-ended authentic project to the client’s satisfaction within the constraints of time and budget. The students do the work; the faculty advises, coaches, and evaluates; the client informs, guides, and accepts or rejects the results. This time-tested program produces outstanding solutions for the vast majority of clients; during the past several years the projects resulted between 10 to 15 patent disclosures being filed annually.

Another of the major benefits of Clinic sponsorship is the opportunity to recruit Mudd students directly from your Clinic team and the campus presence it provides.